Don't Let Your Dreams Be Dreams
by NashNurse
Summary: My ring? No, I’m not married. I keep it more as a reminder...


It's a oneshot... I hope you enjoy it. I never read anyhting much about Donald... and if I do it's always about what a jerk he is. I wanted to add a little more depth to him. Let me know what you think! (Oh and sorry, but I just couldn't resist the HM...you know me...)

Major-Baby

* * *

Donald looked at the young man and sighed; at sixty-seven the story he was about to tell seemed as if it happened a lifetime ago.

"My ring? No, I'm not married. I keep it more as a reminder." He took a drink of his beer as the boy pressed him for more details.

"Well, I was married once. I was young and stupid and I thought I could get away with anything." A small smile played about the old man's mouth as the memory of his ex-wife crept into his mind.

"She was an amazing woman; strong and proud… God I loved her." Donald chuckled cynically as he shook his head. "I just realized how much she meant to me a bit too late."

Donald slowly lost himself in self-pity as he thought of her small frame, amused smile, and energetic laugh. He was jerked back into reality as the boy asked another question.

"Her name? Margaret Houlihan; she was a nurse, a major during the Korean Conflict. I met her while she was on a trip to Tokyo. I drunkenly proposed to her and we were married three months later. "

Donald muttered a curse as he realized he had finished his drink. He ordered another and stared aimlessly at his weathered hands.

"I never treated her like I should have. I assumed her existence was only to cater to me. I never once gave a thought to her or her feelings. While she was alone in Korea, I spent every night with a different, showing them the sights and sounds of Tokyo.

"What was that? Oh, yeah, she knew I wasn't being loyal to her. She only had proof once, but I'm sure she suspected more. Well anyway, when we had been married for almost six months I sent her a letter that I had meant for another woman. I can't even imagine how much that letter hurt her. I can only hope she had some damn good friends to comfort her. Our divore was finalized about a month later. I didn't see her again for three years."

"What did you say? Oh, no, I still hadn't figured out what a special girl she was. I was only angry that she had left me. Anyway, she showed up on my doorstep tow months after the Conflict had ended. She was pregnant and she begged me to take her in."

"The father? No, she didn't even have enough courage to tell him that she was pregnant. Later I found out that the father was a surgeon she had known while in Korea."

"Well, I took her back but I treated her like a complete stranger. I insisted that she stay at home, rather than get a job as a nurse. She would get up after I had left for work, I would come home eat dinner, listen to my favorite radio program and then we would go to bed. I rarely even spoke to her."

"She started taking long drives. For the longest time I couldn't figure out where she was going. She would leave at the oddest times and come back, at the earliest, six hours later. I followed her once and I ended up in a small beach town in Maine. I watched her as she walked into a diner and sit down across from the father of the baby. That was when I first realized how much she meant to me. I was shocked with how depressed and jealous I felt when I saw her laughing with another man."

Donald shrugged as he finished his second beer. "For the next month I ifelt as if I was holding my breath, just waiting for her to tell me she was leaving. I tried my hardest to win back her love, but it was too late, she already hated me and nothing could change that."

"One night I got home before she did and made a nice dinner, and get everything just perfect. When she saw everything she was shocked, happy even. After dinner I lit a fire and sat beside her on the couch. I pulled her close to me and she reluctantly allowed me to do so. She started crying and I instantly knew it was hopeless. I knew she was crying for him; I knew she loved him and I knew the only reason she hadn't left me was because she was afraid he would hurt her."

"I left her on the couch and when I got up the next morning she was gone. Everything she owned was still there, I thought she would be back but I never saw her again. A lawyer came up to me a week later and handed me a folder of legal documents, authorizing our divorce."

Donald looked at the boy's blank expressing and chuckled. "Some story, huh son?" He leaned back in his chair, running his fingers through his snowy white hair.

"If there's anything I want to remember from all that it's to thank God for what I have. I f you always want more you end up with nothing. Love only one woman and love her with your whole heart. If she's your dream, reach out for her. Don't just sit back and hope for the best or that dream will disappear right before your eyes. Don't let your dreams be dreams."


End file.
